1. Field of the Invention
The invention is in the field of transforming organic materials, such as organic fossil fuels, coal, biomass, medical waste, municipal organic waste, and other organic wastes into new super fuel that generates heat and electrical energy with near zero carbon or ash emissions.
2. Review of Technology
Conventional electric energy production from organic materials typically relies on combustion of such materials into their combustion products and the cogeneration of heat, which is used to boil water that drives a turbine. The turbine, in turn, drives an electric generator for producing electric power. Electric energy can also be provided by fuel cells, which convert simple organic molecules into CO2 and water. The oxidation-reduction reaction concomitantly provides electrical power that can be used for a desired purpose. In most cases, conventional combustion of organic materials creates significant pollutants, which are emitted into the atmosphere.
In answer to the need to reduce emissions and more efficiently extract heat energy from organic materials, recently developed was a reactor system for efficiently transforming organic materials, such as organic waste, medical waste, coal, fossil fuels, and biomass, into a new super fuel with high thermal energy with close to zero emission of CO, carbon or coal ash pollutants. Such system is described in U.S. application Ser. No. 13/253,804, filed Oct. 5, 2011, and U.S. application Ser. No. 13/290,069, filed Nov. 5, 2011, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference. As disclosed in the foregoing applications by the inventor, the disclosed reactor does not burn organic materials as in conventional burners but rather transforms converts them into a new super power intermediate fuel, which is then converted into high thermal energy. The foregoing applications also describe the use of heat exchangers for extracting the thermal energy for other purposes, such as to power an electric generator.